


Signs from On High

by shopfront



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Everybody Lives, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Pre-Poly, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-02-28 18:06:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13276980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: Her first full week in Captain Sisko's shoes wasn't the best time for Commander Kira to catch the flu, so she wasn't going to. She just wasn't.





	Signs from On High

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lady_Katana4544](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Katana4544/gifts).



> Thank you to S for the beta!

“I came as soon as I heard,” Jadzia announced as she breezed through the door. 

Kira looked up sharply from her cocoon of blankets, startled. Then she groaned and pressed a hand to her forehead. 

“Julian told me you weren’t as improved as you implied when I left this morning,” Jadzia continued. She tsked gently at Kira as she dropped her bundles by the door and ushered someone else in to the living area, before making a beeline for Kira and the couch. “So I came to check on you, and I brought a delightful new friend I’ve just made.”

“Really, you shouldn’t have,” Kira said flatly.

“Um, I can always go…,” the woman offered quietly, still standing by the open door. She shuffled her feet and offered a small, awkward smile to Kira when she looked up again.

“Nonsense!” Jadzia cried, already doubling back to the door to grab the woman by the hand and coax her into the room properly. “Kira, this is Ezri Tigan. Ezri is taking some shore leave from the Destiny. I’m sure you remember that they were due to dock today to get some of their war damage repaired. Well, I stopped to say good morning to Quark and collect some latinum he owes me, and there she was telling him all about this marvellous new massage technique she's learnt recently.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Kira said, gingerly dipping her head in greeting. She considered Ezri's Trill spots for a moment. The woman wore them almost as well as Jadzia, she caught herself thinking, before she turned exasperated eyes on Jadzia. “But I don’t think a massage is really something I need right now.”

“I’m not even asking you to put up with a hologram as the masseur!” Jadzia cried, then turned to Ezri and continued in a mock whisper. “Don’t listen to her, she gets a little grouchy when she’s sick.”

“I’m not sick,” Kira said loudly with a huff, and pointedly started trying to lever herself to her feet. She got about halfway up before she wavered, and then suddenly she found herself with a Trill on either side easing her back down again.

“It’s not a personal failure to catch the flu,” Jadzia scolded gently once Kira was safely settled between them. Carefully she held a hand against Kira's forehead for a moment. Then she proceeded to pull and tug until she had Kira half in her lap.

“It’s barely a sniffle. Julian hardly even needed to look at me! I was just going to make myself another cup of tea to clear my head before I went up to Ops. Really, I’m fine.”

“Mhmm,” Jadzia said as she exchanged a wry, conspiratorial glance with Ezri. “Don’t worry, I already told the new Bajoran liaison officer not to expect you. Julian said I should try and convince you to stay in bed and rest, so there’s no point going anywhere, anyway. He’ll just order you straight back here, and probably insist you take the hypospray this time.”

Kira groaned in protest.

"I got by just fine without them in resistance," she started to say stridently, but Jadzia just continued to try poke and prod at her without paying her any heed. "They make me groggy," she finished in a mutter, before sighing and letting Jadzia rearrange her until she was fully slumped back across Jadzia's lap.

“Perhaps I could make us some of that tea you wanted?” Ezri asked hesitantly. Mortified, Kira immediately started trying to struggle up again. But Jadzia just nodded and placed a hand on Kira’s shoulder, keeping her firmly in place.

It spoke volumes, more than Kira wanted to admit out loud, that Jadzia's one hand was more than sufficient to keep Kira off her feet.

"You're a guest-," Kira started to protest, anyway. Just on principle.

“That would be lovely, Ezri, thank you," Jadzia said loudly over the top of Kira. "We keep our Deka tea leaves over near the replicator, in that small wooden box.” 

While Ezri shuffled around behind them arranging the tea things, Kira twisted to glare half-heartedly at Jadiza. Jadzia just chuckled and started feeling gently around Kira’s temples with her fingertips.

“What are you doing?” Kira huffed, though she made no move to stop whatever it was.

“This _is_ why I brought Ezri up to meet you, remember? The massage technique. When I heard that you were sick enough for Julian to stop by, well. I may have complained just a little - no, really, just a little, Kira - that you were probably refusing treatment. But Ezri said this massage should help with head pain, including anything sinus related, without leaving you groggy.”

“It’s one of the few good things that came out of the war,” Ezri ventured shyly as she returned to their side with a small tray of steaming mugs. Handing one of them over to Kira, she curled up on the end of the couch and watched them. “Just a little higher, and a perhaps a little closer to her eyes,” she directed Jadzia, and then smiled at Kira and continued. “The Destiny came across a stranded Gamma quadrant trade vessel after the wormhole was closed. They were running short on supplies and unable to find a space port willing to let them dock, so they agreed to exchange information on the Dominion for safe passage out of range of the fighting. There wasn’t much they could tell us of use for the war, in the end. But they did have someone they call a mind healer on board, and I was able to spend a lot of time with her, so-”

“I need to follow the cheekbones down now, is that right?” Jadzia asked, interrupting Ezri long enough for the other woman to take a breath and blush slightly.

“Yes, that’s right,” she said. Then she reached for Kira’s hand as the soothing circles made by Jadzia’s fingers began to move slowly down Kira’s face. “May I?”

Kira frowned in confusion, but nodded. Ezri took Kira’s wrist gently, and then pulled a small iridescent stone from one of her pockets. She placed it in Kira’s palm, and Kira couldn't help but notice the delicate strength in those fingers. Then Ezri folded Kira's fingers around it and then urged her to hold her fist against her belly.

“Aside from the stone, this doesn’t feel that different to a regular massage,” Kira observed wryly.

Jadzia hushed her. “As if you’d know,” she said haughtily, and then dropped a kiss on top of Kira’s head to soften the words.

“You’re right. It’s just pretty standard Federation techniques for the most part, it’s really this stone that’s the important bit,” Ezri said, and then began to make a low humming noise.

“This still seems-,” _very_ _odd_ , Kira started to say, but Jadzia held a stern finger against Kira’s lips until she quieted.

Ezri’s humming increased and decreased in pitch, and after a little while Kira noticed a faint light seeping from between her own clenched fingers. It brightened and darkened in rhythm with the humming. Kira considered dropping the stone for a moment, but it was warm against her palm. Comforting really. Besides, Jadzia really was quite deft at massage.

After a little while, Kira started considering the merits of suggesting a couples massage - but only between an actual couple in their actual rooms, of course - the next time Jadzia tried to convince her to visit a holo-spa. She distantly registered someone slipping the tea mug out of her other hand, when she also felt the pain in her head suddenly… slip… away….

*

The soft murmur of voices drifted back and forth past Kira. She considered them in an unconcerned fashion for a long time, floating in the gentle embrace of warm nothingness. Finally, she began to feel a stirring of curiosity about the words, and that curiosity brought her abruptly back to the surface.

“That’s fascinating," said the less familiar of the voices. "Everything I’ve learnt would have led me to advise you to annul the marriage, but I would have been making the wrong call.” 

“It was certainly an interesting time for both of us,” Jadzia replied. Kira noticed belatedly that her fingers were still pressed against Kira’s temples, because as she spoke they started moving again. “It was just a paperwork issue at first. The war had only just really started, so nobody had time to worry about dissolving an accidental legal partnership from a last minute mission. We were already on to the next one! But also I think Kira didn’t want to contemplate an annulment at first. Because of her religious beliefs.”

“Ah, yes, the wormhole aliens, right? I’ve heard a lot about them.”

Jadzia laughed, a quiet tinkling sort of noise that she quickly smothered. “The Prophets, yes. It’s been some time since I’ve thought of them in quite those terms. They’re very dear to Kira, as they are to all Bajorans. I… I think she thought there must have been some meaning to it, for us to have found ourselves in that predicament at that point in time.”

“But you said you were in other-“

“Relationships? Yes, we were both seeing other people. But the relationships were very new and, well, one thing led to another.”

Kira felt Jadzia shift slightly underneath her. She thought she could imagine what her wife looked like at that moment, shrugging and grinning as if to say oh well, that’s life, just enjoy it! If Ezri had any sense at all, Kira expected she was probably grinning back equally widely at the sight of Jadzia's smile.

“Still. To give up existing relationships just in case some random mission mishap might be a meaningful sign from on high?

“I know,” Jadzia said softly, her fingers going still. “It was strange to me at first as well. But I suppose some of Kira’s beliefs must have rubbed off on me over the years. I join her at the shrine for service sometimes, and it really is incredibly beautiful. It’s not like anything we have back on Trill…. Though it perhaps reminds me a little of visiting the symbiont pools.”

Kira stirred a little without thinking to try and follow Jadzia’s fingers, and the voices abruptly hushed. As she opened her eyes, Kira was just in time to spot a distasteful wrinkle as it disappeared from Ezri’s nose. Jadzia, however, just seemed amused.

“It seems Ezri has similar opinions on symbionts as she does on religion,” Jadzia informed Kira as she resumed her stroking once more. “Though I suppose you heard all about that. How do you feel?”

Kira grimaced, and shifted around a little experimentally. There was a crick in her neck, but otherwise she felt warm and relaxed. Even the headache was gone, just like Jadzia has claimed it would.

“Better,” she finally admitted grudgingly as she sat up properly. “ I wouldn’t mind some more tea, though?”

Ezri brightened. “I can get it!” she cried, jumping up and hurrying towards the replicator.

Kira watched her go. Then she turned to Jadzia, who simply smiled.

“I’m trying to help her out of her shell,” she whispered in Kira’s ear. “Though I suspect it won’t take much.”

“That’s probably a good thing if she’s just here for a short while on shore leave. Not very long for you to work your 'magic',” Kira whispered back, affecting a stern look. One that said ‘please stop meddling with pretty strangers,’ but also one that had yet to prove effective.

“Just you wait,” Jadzia said, her voice low and filthy, before continuing at normal volume again. “I was just telling Ezri about how useful her counselling qualifications could be here! She was given a field promotion during the war, so she’s all ready and waiting for her first permanent posting as a counsellor. We have so many ships coming through with injured crew as the war front disperses, and I was telling her how I thought you’d probably be eager to snatch her up while you could. To help. With the injured visitors.”

Kira blinked. Then sighed. Then blinked again, this time in surprise as Ezri re-appeared on the couch and handed Kira a fresh mug of tea.

“It’s alright,” Ezri said shyly. “I’m not expecting a job. This station turned into such an unexpected hub with the wormhole and everything, that I’m sure you’re being inundated with interest from officers with far more experience.”

Looking between the two Trill, Kira tried to stall by taking a long drink. “I’ll look over our vacancies,” she ventured after she swallowed. Jadzia’s wide eyed gaze shifted from beseeching to pointed. “Send me your Starfleet records and I'll take a look,” she tried again, and Jadzia relented, clapping her hands together.

“Wonderful!” Jadzia cried. “Oh, I’ll help you find the perfect quarters. There’s been so much change with the personnel around here lately, I bet you’ll be able to take your pick of the best ones.”

Kira considered Ezri from the corner of her eye as she took another sip of the tea. Ezri looked pleased, but reserved. Not swept away in Jadzia’s excitement, and that was a mark in her favour, at least. Kira had been considering taking on more Bajoran staff now that the station had a Bajoran commander - however temporary she might hope that would end up being - but Jadzia was right. The medical staff would still be dealing with mostly non-Bajorans for the immediate foreseeable future. 

Nodding to herself, Kira continued to quietly consider Ezri as she spoke animatedly with Jadzia.

 _Yes_ , she found herself thinking. _Yes, maybe this one, too._


End file.
